Company news

GlaxoSmithKline will put a legal charge of $400 million on its fourth quarter books, related to an ongoing off-label marketing investigation initiated by the US Attorney's office in Colorado. The investigation is probing GSK's marketing and promotional practices on several products between 1997 and 2004.

Mead Johnson Nutrition, a unit of Bristol-Myers Squibb, will spin-off from the company with an initial public offering of 28.75 million shares. The company hopes to raise as much as $690 million through the offering.

PeerPoint Medical Education Institute has reorganized as an independent company no longer tied to MedPoint Communications. The ACCME-accredited provider, which focuses on performance/quality improvement CME initiatives, is spinning off ahead of an ACCME edict that goes into effect this August requiring strict separation of providers from companies which handle promotion for drug and device manufacturers.